Human Dignity

WITH THE leadership of the Coalition for the Homeless, Orlando has assumed responsibility toward the homeless. The shelter in the former bus depot on Hughey Street offers food, safe sleeping space and short-term aid to find jobs, housing and independence.For too long, the churches heroically shouldered the full burden of feeding the hungry and providing a roof over the heads of homeless strangers -- Americans, all.Now, coalition leadership has brought about successful change: public funds rather than private donations, assurance of a modest budget with a professional staff and fiscal accountability.

Seventy-one years ago, 44 of my Czech relatives were transported by the Nazis to Terezin concentration camp in Bohemia, then under Nazi occupation. All lost their lives, their only crime being that they were Jewish. My grandparents, Arnošt and Olga Holzer, were gassed at Sobibor, a death camp set up to slaughter people. Sobibor's death toll is estimated at 250,000. Those lives now stand as a lesson plan for the consequences of indifference. As I watch the horror in Syria, I think back to when a different set of world leaders chose to look the other way when another evil man, Adolf Hitler, unleashed a plan to destroy fellow humans.

Regarding "video visits" in jail, I respectfully disagree with the Sentinel's stand. Efficiency is no excuse to sacrifice human dignity. Before video visits, Orange County Jail visitors and inmates were separated by thick glass. Instead of moving forward, I believe we have taken a $4.8 million step backward. A tremendous amount of research supports the power of the human touch. Because we are talking about prisoners, the last group of Americans whom it is still acceptable, or politically correct, to despise and hate, we opt for efficiency vs. decency.

As a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, and in the role of teacher, I'm writing to discuss the Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. On this decision, the conversation for the Catholic Church does not start with rights but with belief. We believe in God, the creator of all life, and because of this, life is sacred from conception to natural death. Mary, the mother of Jesus, showed us the sacredness of life when she accepted the gift of Jesus. We believe that Christ came not so that life would be taken away but so that life would be restored through, with and in God. As the woman in 2 Maccabees eloquently speaks: "It was not I who gave you the breath of life; nor was it I who set in order the elements of which each of you is composed … it is the Creator of the universe Who shapes each man's beginning, as He brings about the origin of everything.

Over the years, you have read a lot of positive articles about me and my office. Recently, there has been some negative press, but the facts are not right. I've heard claims that I am "hiding something" and "wasting" taxpayer money. I disagree strongly with both accusations. An Aug. 5 editorial in the Orlando Sentinel was headlined "We think: State Attorney John Tanner's appeal is wasting taxpayer money." This headline is misleading. The appeal refers to keeping a grand-jury report on the investigation into the Flagler County Inmate Facility sealed.

In the coming months, President-elect Barack Obama will assemble a foreign-policy team and begin the arduous process of listing global priorities, including the need for a new American image. Between now and Inauguration Day, that group should focus on critical issues that demand the incoming president's sustained attention and creativity, starting with human rights. This subject should be a natural for any American president. After all, the United States was born, struggled to its feet and defined itself in the context of a dramatic, historic and sweepingly consequential experiment with freedom.

"Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit. People, worldwide, hunger for the right of self-determination, for those inalienable rights that make for human dignity and progress." RONALD REAGAN, U.S. PRESIDENT

I AM a PWA -- a person with AIDS. Compassion and caring was used to deal with the issue of AIDS by Sentinel writers whom I have worked with till columnist Charley Reese was allowed to destroy all the work they have done. He shows a disregard for human dignity.William J. BarrORLANDO

Person by person, Haiti's police force is being overhauled. Officers who served under the brutal army regime got a crash course Thursday on ''human dignity and ethics'' from U.S. and Canadian experts.''To refer to them as police officers is a bit of a misnomer,'' Mike Berkow, manager of the retraining, said of the force taking classes.''Because these guys are basically military guys,'' Berkow said. ''They have never received police training - Haitian law, basic tactics, patrolling. So we start upfront with human dignity and ethics.

I would like to thank Bishop Thomas Wenski for affirming the principles of human dignity and prudential judgment in Catholic morality. I would also like to thank him for not saying exactly whom to vote for. I imagine that the right wing quickly concluded that the bishop preferred us to vote for George W. Bush, because of uncompromising statements about abortion, euthanasia, fetal stem-cell research, human cloning and same-sex marriage. Other Catholics feel that John Kerry does much better with what the bishop calls prudential judgment.

July 22 It is hard to comprehend what has been brought to light over this past year in respect to the conduct of those to whom we entrust our children. The Florida A&M University hazing murder, the Penn State rapes and molestations, the rapes and unprofessional conduct between instructors and recruits at Lackland Air Force Base are signs of our society's decline. These incidents have taken place when the young victims have been most vulnerable -- leaving the sanctity of home, going into the world to make their mark or wanting to further their education.

An appeals court on Tuesday found California's gay marriage ban unconstitutional. The majority in the 2-1 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California's Proposition 8 ban "serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples. " Do you agree? Or do you think the court overstepped its bounds by nullifying a ban in California's constitution that was backed by millions of voters in the state?

Thank you to the Orlando Sentinel's Scott Maxwell for reminding us that Central Floridians can sometimes be "better at reacting compassionately than planning proactively" when it comes to dealing with poverty in our community ("Poverty lurks in the shadows of Fantasyland," Nov. 30). He writes, "This is particularly true for our leaders" and that, unfortunately, they "have been slow to embrace the kind of big-picture thinking that might address these problems in the first place.

As a Catholic by birth, conviction and culture, I'm often uncomfortable when my church's leaders are enticed away from their spiritual duties into the world of partisan politics. The most recent example of this confusion between God and Caesar is the dispute over Notre Dame's awarding of an honorary degree to President Barack Obama. In some ways, it is odd that there is so much controversy over a symbolic award that has a spotty history. On receiving an honorary doctorate from Central State University, boxer Mike Tyson, a high-school dropout known more for biting opponents than devouring knowledge, reportedly told the graduates, "I wasn't sure what kind of doctor I was, but looking at all the lovely sisters here, I think I'll be a doctor of gynecology."

In the coming months, President-elect Barack Obama will assemble a foreign-policy team and begin the arduous process of listing global priorities, including the need for a new American image. Between now and Inauguration Day, that group should focus on critical issues that demand the incoming president's sustained attention and creativity, starting with human rights. This subject should be a natural for any American president. After all, the United States was born, struggled to its feet and defined itself in the context of a dramatic, historic and sweepingly consequential experiment with freedom.

Over the years, you have read a lot of positive articles about me and my office. Recently, there has been some negative press, but the facts are not right. I've heard claims that I am "hiding something" and "wasting" taxpayer money. I disagree strongly with both accusations. An Aug. 5 editorial in the Orlando Sentinel was headlined "We think: State Attorney John Tanner's appeal is wasting taxpayer money." This headline is misleading. The appeal refers to keeping a grand-jury report on the investigation into the Flagler County Inmate Facility sealed.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Rights groups showed a smuggled video Thursday of hundreds of thousands of poor Zimbabweans living in the open in the winter cold after the government tore down their homes in what it describes as an urban-renewal project. More than 200 international human-rights and civic groups said the campaign, known as Operation Drive Out Trash, was "a grave violation of international human-rights law and a disturbing affront to human dignity."

Interior Minister Philippe Marchand on Wednesday banned dwarf tossing in France, calling it an ''intolerable attack on human dignity.'' The spectacle, throwing a dwarf in protective gear as far as possible onto an inflated mattress, has become popular in Australia. It is often staged in bars along with other entertainment such as female wrestling and topless boxing. Marchand said his order was based on the European Convention to Safeguard Human Rights.

By James Gerstenzang and Noam N. Levey Los Angeles Times, September 16, 2006

WASHINGTON -- President Bush on Friday escalated a brawl with rebellious senators within his own party over his proposal to allow harsh interrogation of terrorism detainees, warning that the outcome of the debate "really is going to define whether or not we can protect ourselves." At a news conference in the White House Rose Garden, the president, in unusually forceful language, urged members of Congress to approve his plan for interrogating detainees and trying them before military commissions.

The beating death of August Felix by five Orlando teens puts Orlando on a growing list of Florida cities marked by senseless savagery perpetrated on homeless people. Within the past year alone, similar incidents have occurred in Fort Lauderdale and Daytona, all committed by bored teenagers who find entertainment value in beating defenseless men to death. An added irony is that three of the assailants were apparently students at Jones High School. A proposal last year to relocate certain homeless services to a location some blocks from Jones High was vetoed because of the possible risk homeless people might pose to nearby high-school students.